Public Enemy #1 — FBI Public Enemy #1 July 17, 2009 The FBI's historian details the life and criminal history of John Dillinger, the mad deemed "Public Enemy #1" during the Great Depression and how his activities motivated changes within the worlds premier law enforcement agency. Audio Transcript Mr. Schiff: Hello I’m Neal Schiff and welcome to Inside the FBI, a weekly podcast about news, cases, and operations. John Dillinger. You may have heard about him. He was a very violent criminal and robbed a lot of banks. Dr. Fox: “John Dillinger became the face of the crime problem in America during the Great Depression, a period between 1933 and 1934.” Mr. Schiff: That’s Dr. John Fox. He’s the historian at the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs. Dr. Fox: “And he became the chief target of the FBI (then called the Bureau of Investigation) in the spring of 1934, leading to a fatal confrontation at the Biograph Theater (in Chicago, Illinois) and the emergence of the FBI as the premier law enforcement organization in America.” Mr.

Schiff: Tell us about Dillinger’s life as a kid. Dr. Fox: “Dillinger grew up in Indiana. First, Indianapolis. But then his father moved to a more rural part, Mooresville, Indiana. His mom died when he was young. Dillinger seems to have had a reasonably normal childhood for kids of that generation. Nothing really stands out. It’s hard to tell, sometimes, because a lot of the stories about Dillinger in his youth came out after his notoriety as a criminal, and so, you can’t tell sometimes whether people are reading too much back into it. But for the most part he seems to have had a fairly normal childhood.” Mr. Schiff: Any idea what lured Dillinger behind the dark door and into the criminal world? Dr. Fox: “It’s kind of hard to say. Certainly as a young adult Dillinger started to have his problems with the law. He ran afoul of the Navy when he went Absent Without Leave as a young midshipman. Of course the thing that really landed him into jail and into real confrontation with regular criminals was his assault of a grocery store clerk-owner that he was trying to rob.

It led him to a nine-year sentence in a fairly severe prison. He became the acquaintance with a number of gangsters, and friends with them, and of course learned the ropes about robbing banks and being a hardened criminal from them.” Mr. Schiff: What were some of his earlier criminal activities and some of the people he hung around with, and then did he escalate his crimes along the way? Dr. Fox: “Well, what happened was as soon as Dillinger got out of jail, he embarked on a crime campaign, in a sense, to raise money to basically break his friends out of jail. He would rob banks; he would target law enforcement officers, sheriff’s offices, police officers to get guns and armored vests. He was basically raising money to go on a life of crime.” Mr. Schiff: Dr. Fox says Dillinger, in 1933, was hooked up with some very bad people in the criminal community. Dr. Fox: “Charles Mackley, Harry Pierpont, and of course, eventually, even more violent ones in 1934. So really, right off the bat of getting out of jail, he’s embarking on a crime crusade.” Mr.

Schiff: There are all kinds of Dillinger stories out there and we asked Dr. Fox about that. Dr. Fox: “Dillinger became famous, in part, because he was a criminal with some style. Really, his escapades seemed to capture people’s imagination. A combination of close escapes, brazen bank robberies, and even some successful prison breaks, one of which, the Crown Point, Indiana, prison break, really catapulted him into fame because it was considered an escape-proof jail, or at least it was kind of portrayed that way in the press. Dillinger was seen hamming it up with local prosecutors; with other law enforcement officers, and his attitude seemed to say that, ‘I’m here for a time but you’re not going to be able to hold me.’ And when he was then able to actually break out and prove that true, it really catapulted him into fame.” Mr. Schiff: Any myths out there that are floating around? Dr. Fox: “I think there are a lot of stories out there about Dillinger that aren’t true. First of all, of course, is the idea that Dillinger was a Robin Hood, you know, kind of a romantic outlaw.

Dillinger, of course, was a violent criminal. His bank robberies put innocent people into harm’s way. He would use human shields to protect himself from being captured by law enforcement. He was, of course, involved in a number of incidents even where law enforcement officers were killed. Whether or not Dillinger was the one that fired the shots might be a matter of debate but the fact that he was putting himself into these situations where that was a clear possibility suggests that he was part of the guilty party as well, and certainly would have been under today’s law. So, Dillinger hung out with violent thugs. Dillinger himself was one. He wasn’t a romantic criminal. He was a criminal, perhaps, who had some personality, but nonetheless, he was a danger to the public’s safety.” Mr. Schiff: We come to 1934. What happened that fateful night in Chicago? What was the FBI up to? How did agents prepare to capture John Dillinger? Dr. Fox: “Well, the FBI, of course, had been looking for Dillinger seriously since March.

We had a number of near-misses, including one tragic one, where we accidentally killed a civilian and lost an agent at Little Bohemia, and we had been looking for Dillinger very, very strongly for a long time. Especially in our Chicago Division, but we also had a group of roving agents under Samuel Cowley who also were going around to different parts of the country wherever serious leads for Dillinger had come up. It came to our attention from an officer of the East Chicago police, that he had an informant named Anna Sage who knew, at least, that Dillinger would be visiting a friend of hers, Polly Hamilton; that they would be planning to out to the movies sometime soon. The Chicago police, of course, were looking for Dillinger because of the death of one of their officers in a robbery. And Anna Sage came to the Chicago office (FBI) and told the special agent in charge there, Melvin Purvis, that she could give Dillinger to them. She wanted, of course, the reward. She also wanted, perhaps, some help with an immigration matter, since she was under threat of deportation at that point.

Purvis said that certainly if you help us, the reward would be in the workings and that the immigration matter wasn’t something he could control but would certainly put in a word for her. And so she agreed, and, the day of July 22nd, let us know that Dillinger was going to be there; that he was planning to go to the movies that night with her and Polly Hamilton, and that he would be at one of two theaters—the Biograph or the Marlboro. So, of course, we sent agents to both theaters, surveyed the situation, to then, of course, wait until Dillinger actually showed up. And of course he did, at the Biograph. And it was upon our realizing that Dillinger had gone into to see the movie that we were able to convene a number of agents, along with some East Chicago police who were there to help us, and actually set up a stakeout, waiting, of course, through the movie until Dillinger came out the front of the theater.” Mr. Schiff: What happened when he came out? Dr.

Fox: “Dillinger turned; of course, if he’s coming out of the theater, he turned to the left, headed south down Lincoln Street. He was identified by Special Agent in Charge Melvin Purvis, who had been hanging out near the box office; and Purvis then signaled the other agents that Dillinger had come out. Sage, of course, had told us that she would be wearing an orange skirt and white blouse so that she’d be very colorful and noticeable on the street, and so agents knew what to look for. Three of our agents fell in behind Dillinger and as he was approaching an alley just past the theater, he realized that he was being followed and started to break for the alley and was turning towards the agents who were following him, reaching towards his pocket seeking to pull out a gun that he had in there. Agents fired. Dillinger, of course, was considered armed and dangerous; had been involved in many shootouts already, some of them with our agents, and so they immediately began to fire at him. Of course, several of the shots hit; Dillinger ended up dying very soon thereafter.” Mr.

Schiff: What was playing up on the silver screen of the Biograph Theater that night? Dr. Fox: “Ironically, it was a gangster pic. It was called Manhattan Melodrama with Clarke Gable and Myrna Loy. Clarke Gable played a racketeer who had gone bad. Another actor was playing his best friend and it was one of these two childhood friends grow up on the opposite sides of the law and end up confronting each other in the end with the girl in the middle.” Mr. Schiff: What was the upside of this situation for the FBI? Where did it move the FBI in history? Dr. Fox: “Well, Dillinger was such a widely known public figure because of the image the media was portraying him. He became, in a sense, Public Enemy #1. The Department of Justice had authorized a very large reward, for instance, for his capture. Of course there were many others as well, because there were at least a dozen jurisdictions looking for him. So when the FBI successfully brought him down that night, it really catapulted the Bureau into national fame. We had, in a sense, redeemed ourselves from the problems at Little Bohemia.

We had become, in a sense, the image of successful law enforcement, and it was an image that we really sought to live up to. Dillinger, because of his almost iconic stature, really kind of became that argument that federal law enforcement could deal with gangster crime and could do so effectively. That the laws that Congress had recently passed that made a number of the crimes that the gangsters had committed a federal matter. That gave Bureau agents, in a sense, law enforcement authorities, rather than strictly being investigators. That they could make arrests, carry firearms, and so forth, really justified, to some extent, in the public mind, that additional authority to the FBI. And of course, it led to our naming as the FBI; we weren’t named the FBI in 1934, but in 1935 we actually received that name and it led to the whole image of the G-Man, and all of a sudden Hollywood, that had been lionizing gangsters in the early 30s, was creating movies about law enforcement, and oftentimes they were starring an FBI agent.” Mr.

Schiff: The FBI’s Top Ten list didn’t come out until 1950, March 14, 1950, but if there would have been a Top Ten list, for sure, Dillinger would have been right on it. Dr. Fox: “Absolutely. He certainly would have qualified, but as you know, we don’t rank them, so Dillinger wouldn’t have been #1 necessarily, but that was the conclusion we came to later. Of course it wasn’t the FBI that named him Public Enemy #1 per se, but certainly it was a phrase that was picked up by the Department of Justice and by many others, and really kind of characterized the way Dillinger was seen.” Mr. Schiff: The John Dillinger melodrama ended shortly after 10:30 on the night of July 22, 1934. More of this gangster’s history of crime and violence and the Bureau of Investigation’s hard work to track him down is on the Internet at That concludes our show. Thanks for listening. I’m Neal Schiff of the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs. Audio Download World's first Public Enemy #1. John Dillinger.

William "Klondike" O'Donnell James "Fur" Sammons After a botched attempt at catching John Dillinger by the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, in an attempt to save face made use of the term 'Public Enemy' and on June 22, 1934, Dillinger's 31st birthday, declared John Dillinger 'Public Enemy #1', the first person to be so designated. On June 23, 1934 the FBI offered a $10,000 reward for his capture, and a $5,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. John Dillinger was killed by FBI agents on July 22, 1934 at the Biograph Theater in the Lincoln Park after being turned in by Ana Cumpanas, who accompanied him to the theater with along with his girlfriend, Polly Hamilton. John Dillinger The notorious John Dillinger -- Chicago Tribune The notorious John Dillinger Nov. 14, 2013 John Herbert Dillinger was a Depression-era bank robber from Indiana who's reign of illegal activity lasted only one year.

From September 1933 until July 1934, he and his violent gang terrorized the Midwest, killing 10 men, wounding 7 others, robbing banks and police arsenals, and staging 3 jail breaks. In June 1934, Dillinger was named America's first Public Enemy Number One by the FBI. On July 22, 1934, Dillinger was shot and killed by the FBI as he walked out of the Biograph Theater on Chicago's north side. Anna Sage, his friend, had betrayed him to the FBI in return for not getting deported to her home country of Romania. Sage became known as the "Woman in Red" for her choice of clothing that day. Next ▶ Buy this photo John Dillinger, center, is handcuffed to Deputy Sheriff R. M. Pierce, left, during Dillinger's court hearing in Crown Point, Indiana during the first weeks of February 1934. Dillinger was charged with killing police officer William O'Malley, 43, during a bank robbery in East Chicago, Indiana on Jan. 15, 1934.

His trail date was set for March 12, 1934. Dillinger would break out of the Crown Point, Indiana jail on March 3, 1934. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Sgt. Edward A. Grim of the North Robey Street police station with a Dubuque, Iowa newspaper found in John Dillinger's stolen and abandoned automobile on May 2, 1934. The bloodstained getaway car, found at 3338 N. Leavitt Street in Chicago, had a surgical kit, matches from the Little Bohemia Resort, and the newspaper dated April 23, 1934 with the headline "Dillinger On Rampage." — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Indiana state police surround the house where two of the convicts were supposed to have been from the Michigan City prison break, circa Oct. 1933. On Sept. 26, 1933, ten convicts, lead by John 'Red' Hamilton, broke out of the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, using guns smuggled to them by John Dillinger.

In the coming days after the prison break, the Chicago Tribune reported over "500 vigilantes, police and deputy sherriffs" searched the farming districts near Michigan City for the felons. Dillinger, who was in a jail cell in Lima, Ohio, engineered the escape of the ten convicts, who became known as Dillinger's gang. Less than a month after they escaped from Michigan City, several of Dillinger's gang broke him out of the jail in Lima, Ohio. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo John Dillinger, center, is led through the Crown Point, Indiana court building on Jan. 31, 1934 to be viewed by witnesses from the First National Bank robbery that occurred on Jan. 15, 1934 in East Chicago, Indiana. Dillinger had been caught in Arizona and flown back to Indiana to be tried for the murder of patrolman William O'Malley, 43. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo John Dillinger arrived back at the county jail at Crown Point, Indiana on Jan. 30, 1934 after being caught in Arizona five days earlier.

Authorities were fearful that Dillinger's gang would try to rescue their leader, so heavily armed guards surrounded the court house and jail. Dillinger was charged with killing police officer William O'Malley, 43, during a bank robbery in East Chicago, Indiana on Jan. 15, 1934. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo John Dillinger is handcuffed and guarded as he smokes during a court recess while Deputy Sheriff R. M. Pierce, left, looks on during Dillinger's hearing at Crown Point, Indiana in the first weeks of February 1934. Dillinger was charged with killing police officer William O'Malley, 43, during a bank robbery in East Chicago, Indiana on Jan. 15, 1934. His trail date was set for March 12, 1934. Dillinger would break out of the Crown Point, Indiana jail on March 3, 1934. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo John Dillinger arrived at the county jail at Crown Point, Indiana, on Jan.

30, 1934 after being caught in Arizona five days earlier. Authorities were fearful that Dillinger's gang would try to rescue their leader, so heavily armed guards surrounded the court house and jail. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo John Dillinger escaped from the county jail at Crown Point, Indiana, with only a toy gun on March 3, 1934. Dillinger threatened deputy sheriffs with a wooden gun and then locked up more than a dozen guards before fleeing in the sheriff's own car. Dillinger was in jail awaiting trial for killing police officer William O'Malley, 43, during a bank robbery in East Chicago, Indiana on Jan. 15, 1934. His trail date had been set for March 12, 1934. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo The Crown Point, Indiana, Jail house, right, and County Courthouse, left, after John Dillinger escaped with only a toy gun on March 3, 1934.

Dillinger threatened deputy sheriffs with a wooden gun and then locked up more than a dozen guards before fleeing in the sheriff's own car. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo A police officer shows the busted out rear window of John Dillinger's stolen and then abandoned automobile at the North Robey Street police station on May 2, 1934. The bloodstained Ford V-8 sedan, found at 3338 N. Leavitt Street in Chicago, had a surgical kit, matches from the Little Bohemia Resort, and a Dubuque, Iowa, newspaper dated April 23, 1934 with the headline "Dillinger On Rampage." — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Government men at the Little Bohemia Resort in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, where a gun battle with John Dillinger and his gang took place on April 22, 1934. Leading the group of G-men were federal agents Melvin Purvis and Hugh Clegg. FBI agents had surrounded the lodge, but Dillinger and his gang were able to escape along the shore of the nearby lake.

— Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Max Organist looks at the guns left behind by John Dillinger and his gang on April 22, 1934 at the Little Bohemia Resort in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin. FBI agents had surrounded the lodge were Dillinger and his gang were staying, but the outlaws were able to escape along the shore of the nearby lake. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Government men stand by the Ford that was abandoned by John Dillinger during a gun battle between authorities and Dillinger's gang at the Little Bohemia Resort on April 22, 1934 in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin. FBI agents had surrounded the lodge, but Dillinger and his gang were able to escape along the shore of the nearby lake. Two people were killed during the raid, an FBI agent and a local man who was mistaken for one of Dillinger's gang. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Men carry the body of Chicago federal agent W.

Carter Baum, a government man who was killed by "Baby Face" Nelson of John Dillinger's gang, during a shoot-out at the Little Bohemia resort in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin on April 22, 1934. Two people were killed during the raid, an FBI agent and a local man who was mistaken for one of Dillinger's gang. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Constable Carl C. Christensen with Mary Levendoski at the Twin City Hospital in Ironwood, Michigan after Christensen was shot by "Baby Face" Nelson of the John Dillinger gang during a gun fight at the Little Bohemia Resort in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin on April 22, 1934. Christensen, a Spider Lake, Wisc. constable, was said to be gravely wounded but survived his wounds. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Eveyln "Billie" Frechette was released from prison on Jan. 30, 1936.

Frechette was arrested in Chicago while her boyfriend and fugitive, John Dillinger, watched helplessly nearby on April 9, 1934. Frechette, who had met Dillinger in 1933, was charged with harboring a fugitive in her St. Paul, Minnesota apartment. She spent two years in jail, getting out in 1936. Upon her release, Frechette toured in a theatrical production called "Crime Doesn't Pay" with members of Dillinger's family. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo John Dillinger and his gang arrive in Chicago on Jan. 30, 1934 after their arrest in Arizona five days earlier. Dillinger had been caught in Arizona and flown back to Indiana to be tried for the murder of patrolman William O'Malley, 43. O'Malley was shot down during the First National Bank robbery in East Chicago, Indiana. Dillinger's trail date was set for March 12, 1934. Dillinger would break out of the Crown Point, Indiana jail on March 3, 1934.

— Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Copy photos of members of John Dillinger's gang, circa Dec. 1933. From top left, are Harry Pierpont (11014), Charles Makley (12636), John Dillinger (13225), and Russell Clark (12261). — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Dillinger was shot and killed by FBI agents on July 22, 1934 at the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago after receiving a tip from Dillinger's friend Anna Sage. Sage, known as the "Woman in Red," told authorities that she, Dillinger, and Dillinger's girlfriend Polly Hamilton Keele would be at the movies and to look for her dressed in red. Some reports say Sage was actually dressed in orange. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Anna Sage, nicknamed the "Women in Red", at the Sheffield Avenue police station in July 1934.

Sage, who wore red or orange as a mark for the FBI, had been with John Dillinger when he was shot and killed by the FBI outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago on July 22, 1934. Sage said she made a deal with famous FBI agent Melvin Purvis. In exchange for information on Dillinger's whereabouts, she would not be deported to her home country of Romania for running a brothel. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo People stand around the blood stain from John H. Dillinger, 32, in the alley behind the Biograph Theater in Chicago. Dillinger was shot and killed by FBI agents on July 22, 1934 after receiving a tip from Dillinger's friend Anna Sage. Sage, known as the "Woman in Red," told authorities that she, Dillinger, and Dillinger's girlfriend Polly Hamilton Keele would be at the movies and to look for her dressed in red. Some reports say Sage was actually dressed in orange.

— Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo John Dillinger's body lies dead on a slab at the Cook County Morgue after he was shot and killed by FBI agents on July 22, 1934 at the Biograph Theater in Chicago. According to the Chicago Tribune, Dillinger was "partly covered with a sheet below which well manicured feet protrude, a tag labeled "Dillinger" on each big toe." — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Prof. D. E. Ashworth lifts a plaster death mask off the face of John Dillinger while his students watch on July 23, 1934 at the Cook County Morgue in Chicago. Prof. Ashworth, of the Worsham College of Mortuary Science, had told employees at the morgue the he had permission to create the mask, but didn't. Ashworth and his students were ousted from the morgue and the partially completed mask was confiscated by the police. Unbeknownst to the FBI, a complimentary copy of another death mask was sent to the bureau from the Reliance Dental Corporation, who also did not have permission.

To this day, there is controversy over how many death masks were made of Dillinger's face and the authenticity of the masks. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo Betty Nelson and Rosella Nelson view the body of John Dillinger, 32, while in bathing suits at the Cook County Morgue, located at Polk and Wood Streets, in Chicago. In the days after Dillinger was killed on July 22, 1934, massive crowds lined up outside the morgue to get a glimpse of the notorious public enemy. — Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous Next ▶ Buy this photo John Dillinger's body leaves the Cook County Morgue at Polk and Wood Streets to be taken to McCready Funeral home at 4506 Sheridan Road on July 24, 1934. Dillinger's father, John Dillinger Sr., 70, traveled from Mooresville, Ind. to claim his son's body. Dillinger was embalmed and then taken back to Indiana for burial.

— Chicago Tribune historical photo ◀ Previous American Experience | Public Enemy #1 | People & Events People & Events: John Dillinger, 1903-1934 In April 1934 Warner Brothers released a newsreel showing the Division of Investigation manhunt of John Dillinger, one of the nation's most notorious criminals. The newsreel showed footage of Dillinger's father, an elderly farmer, and the residents of Mooresville, Indiana, Dillinger's hometown. Movie audiences across America cheered when Dillinger's picture appeared on the screen. They hissed at pictures of D.O.I. special agents. When he heard the news, D.O.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover was outraged . He put the town of Mooresville under surveillance, and threatened to prosecute the Dillinger family unless they cooperated with the D.O.I. Hoover was dissuaded from the latter, but members of the family, out of concern for their safety, did agree to be interviewed by federal agents. John Herbert Dillinger was born on June 22, 1903, in Indianapolis.

His father, John Wilson Dillinger, owned a small grocery store and four houses. His mother, born Mollie Lancaster, died when little Johnnie was three. His sister, Audrey, who was fourteen years older, took care of him until she married a year later. His father remarried when Johnnie was nine. The senior Dillinger alternated between disciplining and spoiling his son. He beat Johnnie with a barrel stave, yet gave him enough money for candy. On some days his father would lock Johnnie in the house all day; on others he would let him roam the neighborhood until dark. Johnnie was constantly getting into trouble. He led a neighborhood gang called the Dirty Dozen, and pilfered coal from railroad freight cars. Most neighbors did not know about Johnnie's exploits, and described him as a cheerful, likable youngster, who dressed neatly and was no more mischievous than any other boy. At 16, Dillinger dropped out of school and began working at a machine shop, where he did very well. At night he always returned home late, creating tension with his father.

In 1920 the senior Dillinger sold his property in Indianapolis to retire to a farm in Mooresville, Indiana. He was also hoping that the country would provide his son with a wholesome environment. Instead Dillinger kept his job in Indianapolis by commuting 18 miles on his motorcycle. He refused to tell his father about his nightly escapades, which included drinking, fighting, and visiting prostitutes. After five months in the Navy, Dillinger went AWOL, and married Beryl Hovious on April 12, 1924. He was 20 and she was 16. On September 6, 1924, Dillinger and his friend, Edgar Singleton, robbed a Mooresville grocer. Frank Morgan was returning home with the week's receipts when the two men assaulted him. Although Dillinger beat Morgan with a cloth-wrapped iron bolt, the grocer was not severely hurt. Dillinger was arrested; his father sternly advised him to plead guilty and take his punishment, which turned out to be quite harsh. Young Johnnie was given the maximum penalty of 10 to 20 years in prison, even though he had no previous criminal record.

Singleton, who was much older and did have a prison record, served less than two years of his 2-to-14-year sentence, thanks to his lawyer. Years later, in October 1933, Dillinger wrote his father a letter from jail: I know I have been a big disappointment to you but I guess I did too much time, for where I went in a carefree boy, I came out bitter toward everything in general... if I had gotten off more leniently when I made my first mistake this would never have happened. Dillinger was sent to the Indiana State Reformatory in Pendleton. Although he was occasionally disciplined for disorderly conduct, he was not considered dangerous. He played on the prison baseball team and worked in the shirt factory as a seamster. With his impressive manual dexterity, Dillinger frequently completed twice his daily quota. He secretly helped other men meet their quotas, and made many friends, his closest ones being Harry Pierpont and Homer Van Meter. Dillinger's wife and family visited him frequently. He wrote often, and his letters were full of warmth and affection.

In a letter to his wife , dated August 18, 1928, Dillinger wrote: Dearest we will be so happy when I can come home to you and chase your sorrows away (...) For sweetheart I love you so all I want is to just be with you and make you happy. (...) Write soon and come sooner. But Beryl Hovious's heart was not growing fonder. Shortly after receiving this letter, Beryl filed for a divorce, which she obtained on June 20, 1929. Dillinger was devastated. Six years later, while hiding in Chicago, he said, "I began to know how you feel when your heart is breaking. For four years I had looked forward to going back home, and now there wasn't going to be any home to go back to." The second blow came a month later when Dillinger was denied parole. After achieving exemplary behavior for two years, he was angry. He asked to be sent to the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Dillinger told officials the penitentiary had a better baseball team.

The truth was that he wanted to leave Mooresville behind and join his old friends Pierpont and Van Meter, who had been transferred there. At Michigan City, the discipline was harsher, and Dillinger was surprised to see many men his father's age. He became depressed, and did not bother joining the baseball team. Dillinger worked in the shirt factory again, where he once again produced double quotas and assisted less skillful men. At the penitentiary, Dillinger learned all he could from older inmates. He met Walter Dietrich, who had worked with Herman K. Lamm . A former officer of the German army, Lamm emigrated to the United States. He became successful by applying his military training to bank robbery. He would carefully investigate a bank's layout, and assign each associate a role. The driver of the getaway car would plan the escape route down to tenths of a mile, and practice it several times. Lamm's method worked for thirteen years, until he was killed in a shoot-out with police. After nine years, Dillinger was paroled on May 22, 1933. He felt that he had paid his debt to society by spending his youth in prison.

He and his family later claimed that it was prison and the law which turned him into a desperado, but in truth, his record before going to prison was pretty bad. It is clear that prison did nothing to rehabilitate him. At this point in his life, Dillinger was determined to become a professional bank robber. In his memoirs, government agent Melvin Purvis wrote, "there is probably no one whose career so graphically illustrates the inadequacies of our system as does that of John Dillinger." Using guns smuggled in by the newly freed Dillinger and arrangements made by Harry Pierpont's girlfriend, Mary Kinder, ten men escaped from the Indiana State Prison on September 22, 1933. Among them were Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley, John Hamilton, Walter Dietrich, and Russell Clark, who formed the Dillinger gang. They were joined by Homer Van Meter, who had been released on parole. Four days before his friends escaped, Dillinger had been arrested in Dayton, Ohio. One of the gang's first missions was to free Dillinger, who was being held at the Allen County Jail in Lima, Ohio.

In the process, Pierpont shot and killed Sheriff Jesse Sarber. The Dillinger gang raided police stations for guns and ammunition, and used the Lamm method to rob banks. One or two men would visit a bank during business hours. They would memorize the interior layout, and note the distance from the nearest police station. Pat Cherrington, Hamilton's girlfriend, described how Dillinger and Van Meter "cased" one bank. "they identified themselves as being officials of the NRA [ National Recovery Administration ] in Washington. ...they advised the bank president they were calling on all banks throughout the state in a survey, and they were very much interested in how the various codes were operating." Gang members would drive through an escape route three or four times. The men drew maps showing towns, landmarks, and the number of miles between various points. These were marked on a chart which the "navigator" read to the driver. The men even hid cans of gasoline in haystacks along the escape route. Most of the gang members had girlfriends. Dillinger dated Evelyn "Billie" Frechette , who was of mixed French and Native American ancestry.

While the other girlfriends drank hard liquor, Dillinger refused to give Frechette any, because of her Native American background and his belief that she might become an alcoholic. The men themselves rarely drank, because Pierpont would not allow a robbery to be committed, or even planned, under intoxication. He maintained that because they lived in constant danger of being caught, the men had to be alert at all times. Police departments and newspapers attributed many crimes to the Dillinger gang that they did not commit. While vacationing in Florida in December 1933, the gang was accused of crimes throughout the Midwest . One Chicago newspaper accused Dillinger of shooting a dog. He said, "Hell! This is going too far. How could I shoot a dog in Chicago from down here in Florida. I wonder if the dog's name was Matt [Leach] ." (Leach, Dillinger's nemesis, was chief of the Indiana State Police.) During a bank robbery on January 15, 1934, a police officer was killed. He later told his lawyer, "I've always felt bad about O'Malley getting killed, but only because of his wife and kids.

...He stood right in the way and kept throwing slugs at me. What else could I do?" On January 25, 1934, Dillinger, Pierpont, Makley, and Clark were arrested in Tucson. The latter three were extradited to Lima, Ohio. Dillinger was extradited to Indiana for the murder of Officer O'Malley, and transported by extravagant and, for the time, quite unusual means: an airplane. Because he put up a struggle, police had to shackle him and virtually drag him to the plane. When they chained him to a post inside it, he said, "Hell, I don't jump out of these things." Dillinger, by now a folk hero to Americans disillusioned with failing banks and the ineffective federal government, arrived at the jail in Crown Point, Indiana, on January 30, 1934. But he would never be tried for the murder of Officer O'Malley. On March 3, he escaped by threatening guards with a wooden gun he claimed to have carved out of a washboard.

(Later, evidence emerged that his lawyer had arranged for Dillinger's escape with cash bribes.) Dillinger stole the sheriff's car and drove to Chicago. D.O.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover was ecstatic, because driving a stolen vehicle across state lines was a federal crime, making Dillinger eligible for a D.O.I. pursuit. From April 5 to 8, 1934, Dillinger and Frechette visited his family in Mooresville. The gathering was a happy one that included a Sunday dinner. The following day, Dillinger and Frechette drove to Chicago, where she was arrested by D.O.I. special agents. Because of his fame, life was becoming increasingly difficult for Dillinger. He and Van Meter underwent plastic surgery on May 27, 1934, at the home of Jimmy Probasco, a bar owner with connections to the Chicago Syndicate. The two men spent the following month recuperating at Probasco's house.

During his recovery, Louis Piquett, Dillinger's lawyer, and Arthur O'Leary, Piquett's legal investigator, visited Probasco's house frequently, and got to know Dillinger well. They said he dressed neatly and conservatively, and kept his fingernails perfectly manicured. Dillinger liked to read, and enjoyed talking about current events and baseball. He was usually friendly and good-natured, and rarely used profanity. Dillinger had an outstanding ability to remain calm in an emergency, and to act quickly and rationally. Piquett and O'Leary said he did not have a killer instinct. On his 31st birthday, June 22, 1934, Dillinger was declared America's first Public Enemy Number One. The following day the federal government promised a $10,000 reward for his capture, and a $5,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. Dillinger moved into Anna Sage's apartment on July 4, 1934. Originally from Romania, she was facing deportation proceedings for operating several brothels.

Sage was working a double game, though; by turning Dillinger over to the D.O.I., she thought she would not be deported. On July 22, 1934, Dillinger invited Sage and Polly Hamilton, his current girlfriend, to the movies. They saw Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable. When the movie was finished, Dillinger walked out of the theater between Sage and Hamilton. He had walked into a D.O.I. ambush . John Dillinger was shot twice, and died instantly. Dillinger's family gave him a Christian burial on July 25, 1934. He was laid to rest in the family plot at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. A week after Dillinger's death, his family signed a contract with a vaudeville show. In between acts at the Lyric Theater in Indianapolis, they talked about Dillinger's life. Although Dillinger never repented for his crimes, he did regret his chosen lifestyle. Before undergoing plastic surgery, he told O'Leary, "I want to live like other people.

Billie and I would like to be married and settle down somewhere." In spite of his outwardly reckless behavior, Dillinger had no illusions about his situation. He told O'Leary, "I'm traveling a one-way road, and I'm not fooling myself as to what the end will be. If I surrender, I know it means the electric chair. If I go on, it's just a question of how much time I have left." One story about Dillinger long outlasted the famous outlaw: the claim that his male organ was unusually large, and that he possessed extraordinary sexual prowess. A morgue photograph of Dillinger under a sheet helped promote this story; his arm, under the sheet, created a bulge that some viewers misinterpreted as his genitalia. At the time of Dillinger's death, newspapers ran the photo only after retouching it to remove the scandalous bulge. Though an autopsy revealed his physical endowment to be normal, the legend persisted, with some claiming the Smithsonian had kept the organ for its collections.

Question: Who was the FBI's first public enemy number one
Answer: John Dillinger